WSOP.com is making Nevada online gambling history as it becomes the first Silver State operator to accept PayPal deposits.
Despite being a fairly momentous occasion for the online gambling industry, the return of PayPal happened with almost no hype, and didn’t even rate an official notice from either PayPal or Ceasars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) – the operator behind WSOP.com. News of the new PayPal option was broken by iGaming.com (subscription required) late yesterday.
iGamingBusiness.com also reports that CIE is planning to implement a PayPal option for its digital New Jersey products within six months.
For companies like CIE, PayPal’s return cannot come soon enough. That’s because payment processing, and customer mistrust of completely legitimate payment processors like NetTeller, have slowed the growth of regulated American online gambling.
In both New Jersey and Nevada, players have had tremendous difficulties making deposits through their credit and debit cards thanks to post-Black Friday hysteria in the payment processing world. According to CalvinAyre.com, as many as three quarters of all New Jersey credit card deposit from Visa and Mastercard were declined during the first six months of legal igaming there.
Operators are hoping that Nevada players will feel more comfortable depositing with the same payment processor they use for eBay purchases and can do an end run around Visa and MasterCard entirely. That’s a pretty big x factor for a company as large as CIE but with Nevada online poker revenue tanking at a rapid rate, just about anything that could bring in cash is welcome news.